This invention relates to Magnetoresistive (MR) sensing heads, and more particularly to MR heads which are moved across magnetic marks which represent encoded information. It is particularly related to MR heads for sensing information encoded on products, and automatic recording and tabulation thereof.
One of the important areas of MR sensing is in the recording and tabulating of data affixed to consumer products, such as in a supermarket, or department store wherein articles are encoded with price and other information by means of magnetic markings. These markings are "read" by a wand with an MR head being passed over the markings in contact with the encoded information.
In the design of the head, the MR element must be slightly recessed from the sensing surface of the head to avoid premature failure of the sensor. In the past, one specific form which this head has taken is a silicon wafer substrate onto which the MR material is deposited which is then closed by a sapphire wafer. Sapphire has been selected because it is very hard and generally wear resistant, while silicon had been selected since it is isotropic, provides good adhesion to deposited films and is easy to polish. The silicon, however, has proved to be very soft and wear sensitive, wearing rapidly and quickly and allowing the MR element to contact the item being sensed. Thus, while this design works effectively, it has a very short life.
Sapphire is a single crystal Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 material, and its orientation can be determined by optical or x-ray technique. The physical properties of the crystal, e.g. thermal expansion, hardness, etc. are dependent upon, and vary greatly with different orientation.
Attempts to use sapphire without control of orientation as both substrate and closure pieces have proved ineffective for several reasons. One principal reason is that the performance of these has been very erratic, some working well for periods of time, while others fail quickly from chipping and/or wear. Also, the manufacturing yield of the pieces has also been very erratic with some batches having extremely low yield.